An industrial vehicle including a frame, an axle pivotally mounted on the frame, a restriction mechanism for restricting the pivotal movement of the axle, a pair of vehicle wheels rotatably supported on the axle, and a steering mechanism having a steering wheel for steering the vehicle wheels in accordance with rotation of the steering wheel. A first detecting device detects an angular position of the steering wheel. The angular position represents a steering amount of the steering wheel. A second detecting device detects a wheel angle. The wheel angle is the angle between a plane perpendicular to a rotation axis of the vehicle wheel and a line representing straight running of the vehicle. A third detecting device detects a yaw rate of the vehicle. A fourth detecting device detects a vehicle speed. A calculating mechanism calculates a plurality of variables based on the detected angular position of the steering wheel, wheel angle, yaw rate and vehicle speed. The variables include lateral acceleration, yaw rate changing rate, and lateral acceleration changing rate. A control mechanism controls the restriction mechanism to restrict the pivotal motion of the axle when one of the variables exceeds a predetermined reference value.